There has been a shift in the focus of pharmaceuticals companies towards targeted therapeutics. This has created a demand for disease-specific biomarkers, which in turn has created opportunities in commercializing transcriptome research outcomes. Transcriptome analysis tools and services help identify novel and potential drug targets.

Since long, the transcriptomes of stem cells and cancer cells have held the interests of researchers who strive to deeply understand how cellular differentiation or carcinogenesis take place. However, the area of study is expected to expand as researchers are now analyzing the transcriptomes of human embryos, which is expected to be a powerful tool for in vitro fertilization. Transcriptomics is thus, a technology that is continually growing in the field of biomarker discoveries and is extensively used to assess the safety of drugs.

According to a research report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global transcriptomics technologies market will rise from US$1.65 bn in 2012 to US$4.6 bn by the end of 2019 expanding at a healthy CAGR of 15.90% between 2013 and 2019.

In this blog post, TMR answers three critical questions about the global transcriptomics technologies market:

Q. What are the latest trends in the transcriptomics technologies market?

The transcriptomics technologies market is currently witnessing the partnering of many software companies with life science equipment manufacturers. The partnership is done with a vision to introduce reliable and sophisticated software, which enables easy handling of huge volumes of research data. Thus, it is expected that there will be interdependence between the IT industries and life science equipment manufacturers.

Some of the partnerships and acquisitions between IT companies and life sciences equipment manufacturers include: The acquisition of Ingenuity Systems, Inc., based in the U.S. by Qiagen N.V., has enabled web-based applications to handle the growing volumes of research data. Likewise, DNAStar, Inc., a company headquartered in Madison, has entered into an agreement with Life Technologies Corporation to market its software.

Another trend, which is emerging in the market, is the mutual collaboration of pharmaceutical companies with research and academic institutions. The outsourcing of research in transcriptomics not only provides a good business opportunity to pharmaceutical companies, but benefits the diagnostic manufacturers as well. Such strategic moves are helping pharmaceutical and in-vitro diagnostics companies to reinforce their business presence and help increase their revenue generation.

Q. What are the challenges that the transcriptomics technologies market is expected to face?

The transcriptomics technologies market is expected to be inhibited by the rising difficulty in the management of complex data. Data complexity increases with the advancements in RNA analysis procedures. For instance, the analysis of the data acquired after the sequencing of multiple transcripts is expected to pose a major concern in transcriptomics research as it generates huge, unmanageable research findings or data.

Dearth of inefficient data analysis tools will be another challenge impeding the growth of the market. There are very few people who have expertise in the field of transcriptomics technologies. This lack of expertise is preventing the transcriptomics technologies market to grow freely.

With the introduction of RNA analysis tools and services, the next generation sequencing platform, huge business prospects are expected to open in transcriptomics research. The increasing demand for precision medicine will lead to a growth in transcriptomics research and also increase the degree of its commercialization.

The current need for exploiting opportunities in developing novel drug discovery will give rise to assay technologies, multiplexed RNA quantification, and gene expression patterns of specific genes. Thus, the forthcoming era of transcriptomics research is expected to bring rapid advances in the field of drug discovery. As such, the price of new drugs is expected to reduce in the future and most importantly there will be elimination or reduction in the prospect of hypothesis failure.